Werner Herzog won a special award at the Venice Film Festival for the distinctive spin he applied to this 2009 remake of an Abel Ferrara film. Shot in post-Katrina New Orleans, Herzog's film takes full advantage of the city's decay and wreckage to mirror Lieutenant Terence McDonagh's (Nicolas Cage) descent into drug and gambling addiction. Cage's idiosyncratic performance as a high-functioning addict who is still a deeply intuitive, fearless detective earned him Best Actor honors at the Toronto Film Festival. A great supporting cast includes Val Kilmer, Brad Dourif, Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, and Eva Mendes as the prostitute McDonagh loves.